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What does "garbage collection" mean in programming?
garbage collection is one of the most common terms in software development. This guide explains what it means, how it is used in practice, and why it matters, with real examples from the developer world.
Definition
Automatic memory management that frees memory occupied by objects no longer referenced by the program. Languages like Python, Java, and JavaScript use garbage collection so developers don't need to manually allocate and free memory.
Example
"The memory leak was fixed once we removed the circular reference that was preventing garbage collection."
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